HWA Beta or just me?

Hi Guys and Gals,

in my games i usually use PNG-files. I create them in photoshop and export them as PNG-24 so the alpha channel will automatically be imported in MMF2.

For some reason since HWA beta it doesn't work anymore. I can't find the problem. Older apps (created in MMF2 without HWA) with PNG-images still work fine but i can't get it to work when i start a new app.

How do you create sprites with alpha channel?

Don't use HWA, because it's only Beta and it's full of bugs :D Report this in the HWA topic, and till the final version of HWA, I recommend using "normal" MMF2 :)

No problem here apparently to import PNG files with alpha channel. Questions :

- what version of Windows do you use?

- what screen resolution do you use? (number of colors)

- what's your video card?

- when you create a new application with MMF2 HWA, it's in Direct3D 9 mode by default. Switch the application to standard mode in the app properties. Does this solve the problem?

Thank you guys for quick reply.

@Yves:
I use WinXP Pro in 32 bit color depth. My videocard is a Geforce6800GT (256MB).
When I switch to standard mode the problem is still there. That's why I got thinking that it must be me being "dingi" and not MMF2. When I import an image as a background or an active object I can add alpha channel manually. It's just not there automatically.

Ah ok, yes maybe the PNG file doesn't contain any alpha channel. You said "PNG-24", shouldn't it be "PNG-32" for images with alpha-channel? (not sure, I don't use Photoshop)

No, there's just PNG-8 and PNG-24. I suppose it means 24 bits. I used to export all my files in PNG-24 and it always worked fine.

I usually export them from a PSD-file (photoshop). And they have alpha channel.

Could you send me one of these PNG files?

PNG-24 contains an alpha channel (if the picture has it, of course). The picture is stored as a 16bits for colors + 8bits for alpha channel. It's for TGA that 24+16 is possible. ;)

I've tested to import a PNG-24 with an alpha channel and it works well for me with or without a new application in HWA mode.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sphax

PNG-24 contains an alpha channel (if the picture has it, of course). The picture is stored as a 16bits for colors + 8bits for alpha channel.

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Ehh, no.. If it uses the alpha channel it's PNG24 + Alpha and uses 32 bits per channel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics

Oops sorry, I've misunderstood the explanation. :D I've read it in the same page. lol

Hehe :)

I just found out that it's me, not MMF2 ;).

I create sprites in cinema 4D and export them as PSD-file (photoshop) with all kinds of layers and alpha channel.
It works fine in photoshop until I export it as a PNG24-file. Somehow, and I seriously don't know why, it loses the alpha channel when I export it.

Does anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

Photoshop only exports the alpha channel when it is visible at screen. I mean when you can see the grid through the transparent pixels. If you deactivate the alpha channel or have an opaque layer behind an alpha image, it won't work.
Can't you just export directly the png from cinema 4D ?

@Brovic:
I've tried to export directly as png-file but it won't work.

But your explanation gave ma an idea what the mistake might be...
I'll have to try later on at home. Will see if it works.

Thanks so far!

Problem solved... It was me ;)!

I had to create a layer mask out of the alpha channel in photoshop so that alpha channel and image would be in one layer (thanx to Brovic).

Thanks anyways guys...